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Commission queue now publicly visible on Trello! by Thornwolf

Lately I've noticed a trend that whenever I upload ANY art, even if it's been owed for a long time or personal, within a few hours I get an email "Where's MY art though?" or "Have you started mine yet?". This is a very new concept to me because in the past, I've had more free time to just draw orders as they come in, so I feel bad when my clients feel like they need to email me first. I feel like I keep pretty good contact, though I admit I have been slipping lately. This bad feeling that is generated when I upload and am immediately contacted makes it so I hoard uploads and don't share art until I feel I'm "ahead of the game" so I'm prepared for such questions, but I inevitably forget to upload that hoarded artwork altogether, which defeats the purpose of having galleries in the first place. I LOVE sharing my art, but lately I've been feeling like whatever progress I make (via uploads) I'm told (via email) that it's the wrong progress, and that's a yucky feeling. I consider myself a pretty fast artist, but I've been significantly slower this year due to juggling my non-furry job with my furry job, and it's time I change how I do things, both for you and for me. I want to make sure everybody's aware of their status and remains happy and in-the-loop without necessarily sending out email after email, because let's face it, I'm not as fast as I used to be, and what worked in the past is not working now.

To hopefully alleviate some of these issues, for the first time ever I will be making my commission queue and process public by posting it to Trello, making the status, comments, and updates on my commissions publicly visible. With Trello, clients can check the progress on their commission in real time as I am making progress through my list as per my status queue instead of spending time on nudging emails (which actually take quite a bit of time, yikes). Please be advised, I work out of order, because I tend to pick at my entire list bit by bit, but always keeping those with hard deadlines in constant motion. This is how I balance my two jobs. Not ideal, but it's what I have for now. Everything gets touched, everything gets worked on, everything gets researched.

So, without further ado, here is my commission list. This is how it appears on my whiteboard at home (sans payment info because that is private, but the color coding shows those paid in full and those that are partially paid).

https://trello.com/b/pq5dENPX/thornwolf-s-commissions

Please Note - This will NOT replace my regular correspondence emails. Whenever I have a significant update to share, I will be contacting clients directly in private via email. My Trello is merely so if you, as a client, want to check up on me, you can see my motion yourself instead of having to ask me for it.

Thank you!

Commission queue now publicly visible on Trello!

Thornwolf

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Comments

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    This is a smart idea, It's a shame that people are/can be impatient but it's a simple solution. Perhaps with this they'll use up less of your available time ^,^

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      It's my fault for being slow on the ones that are older and have been waiting, but I have gotten nudges only shortly after being commissioned (mere days, a week) immediately after I upload previously commissioned artwork, so its mostly those types of inquiries I'd like to steer in a different direction. They only stress me out. XD

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    Now this is excellent! Even though you post status updates via your Twitter fairly often, a public queue list just made things better by keeping your clients better informed. I see you've already linked it to your Weasyl user page.

    In addition, you really caught me off guard with the Patreon perk package (the print and sticker). I really don't know what to say: Thanks so much! hugs

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      I figured it would be awhile before you received something so even though we said I should combine it together with your commission, I figured better send something now since I'm so behind XD Thank you for your continued patience with me! But yeah I try to update via twitter as much as possible but hopefully Trello is good at keeping everything in an easily referenced place so folks don't have to skim their timelines. Pretty much anything that helps people feel more at ease without me hovering over my email as much. I used to not feel too good about keeping a public queue BECAUSE I work out of order, I got questions of "why are they next, I'm next" but I figure by now folks tend to understand that I finish quickest things intermittently and as long as there's motion on theirs, it doesn't affect anything. I like having small sense of accomplishment while I work on bigger projects XD

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    yey more toes toes pictures <DDDDDD

    Let's see if we can manage something xD

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    I love Trello! I have been using it for a few months now and I have yet to really unlock it's full potential. So glad to see other artists enjoying it too!

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      So far I'm liking it. I have a white board I erase stuff but I can't really record the minute details of progress like I can with Trello. It gives me small victories.

      Also omg I love your icon expression XD